Cold Paradise

59

Stone watched Thad Shames leave the house and walk through the gardens toward the yacht.

“Maybe I should talk to him alone,” Stone said.

Dino got up. “I’ll be in my cabin if you need me.”

As Dino departed, Thad came up the gangplank and walked to the afterdeck, where Stone waited for him. “Hello,” he said.

“Hello, Thad. Have a seat.” Stone wasn’t going to enjoy this.

“What’s up? Why did you want to see me alone?”

“Because what I have to tell you is for your ears only. You must not share this with Liz, or even Callie.”

“You sound very serious,” Thad said.

“This is very serious.”

“Tell me.”

“Today, Dino and I have had visits from two FBI agents and a detective from the Houston, Texas, police department.”

“About Liz?”

“No, about Paul Ma

“What about Ma

“One of the problems with finding Ma

“I understand. And Ma

“He has, once. After the business on St. Marks, Ma

“And then his prints went into the FBI computer?”

“No. Whoever handled the fingerprinting at the Nineteenth considered Ma

“The FBI also maintains a database of fingerprints that are associated with unsolved crimes. If a perpetrator leaves a print at a crime scene, it’s run against all known prints, and if there’s no match, it goes into the unsolved crimes database under a file number that relates to the case. I asked Dino to run a match of Ma

“So Ma

“Yes. It appears that he had been supporting himself in that ma

“Busy guy.”

“Yes, he has been. Which brings us to today’s visit from the FBI and the Houston detective. The FBI told us they were interested in the Virginia bank robbery, which was patently nonsense because the Bureau would never spend its resources on such a small crime, especially when they know the banks won’t even prosecute small robberies unless violence was employed.”

“So what were they really interested in?”

“The Houston PD, in investigating a suspected homicide, also came up with a fingerprint, which they ran against the FBI’s databases. They turned up the Virginia bank robbery, too, and then, when Dino’s precinct turned up the same thing, it alerted both the FBI and the Houston department that somebody else had a match. What’s more, Dino could attach an identity to the prints, as well, and that’s why we had these visits today.”

“Did you or Dino tell them who the prints belonged to?”

“Yes, we did.”

“So they’re looking for Ma

“Yes. And we think he may be in Palm Beach.”

“Well, this is very good news, Stone.”

“It is. I hope they’ll have him in custody soon, which would prevent Ma

“Why do you think he would try to do that?”

“Last night, while the yacht’s crew was off duty, and Dino and I were asleep on the yacht, somebody let go all her mooring lines and removed the gangplank. If Dino hadn’t woken up, the yacht would almost certainly have collided with a bridge south of here and done great damage; maybe even have sunk the yacht.”

“Jesus. And you think it was Ma

Stone avoided mention of Dolce. “He seems the likely candidate. It was hardly the prank of a roving band of juvenile delinquents.”

“And you think he might try to disrupt the wedding?”

“Yes. We’ve taken security precautions against that possibility.”

“So everything that can be done has been done?”

“Yes.”

Thad stood up. “Then I’m going to put it out of my mind.”

“Please sit down, Thad. I’m not finished.”

Thad sat down.

“The Houston PD is interested in Ma

“So he killed somebody in Houston, too? Good God, the man’s a maniac.”

“That certainly appears to be so. But what’s important to us here, today, is that the man the police think may have been poisoned was Winston Harding, Liz’s late husband.”

Thad seemed to freeze in place. “Oh, my God,” he said, finally.

Stone felt he had finally made his point.

“The poor girl. This man has made her life hell, and now we learn he murdered her husband, too?”

Maybe he hadn’t made his point, after all, Stone thought. He was going to have to spell it out. “That is a very distinct possibility,” Stone said. “And it has implications for you.”

“You mean, you think Ma

Stone nodded. “It’s a possibility we can’t ignore.”

“But you’ve already taken security precautions.”

“Yes, but how long are you willing to live under those circumstances?”

“I see,” Thad said. “You mean that he might try to kill me at some time in the future?”

“Yes.” Stone was having trouble getting the rest of it out. “Thad, I think that, under the circumstances, you should postpone the wedding.”

Thad looked alarmed. “For how long?”

“Until Ma

“Gosh, I don’t know if we could do that at this point without causing a major hullabaloo in town. We’ve already invited two hundred people from Palm Beach and all over the country. Some of them have already arrived.”

“Of course, Ma

“That would certainly solve the problem, wouldn’t it?”

Stone took a deep breath. “Not necessarily.”

Thad looked at him for a long moment. “You mean Ma

“It’s a very real possibility.” Thank God, Stone thought, he’s got it at last.

“Do you have any idea who it might be?”

No, he hadn’t gotten it. “Thad, I want you to understand that what I’m about to say is conjecture, but it’s a conjecture that has to be made.”

“So, make it.”

“There’s only one person that we’re aware of who knows both Ma

Thad’s brow wrinkled, then his face relaxed, and his mouth fell open. “You can’t mean…”

“As I say, it’s only conjecture at this point. We won’t know more until Ma

“But that’s completely crazy,” Thad said.

“You may be right. But ask yourself this: Who profited from Winston Harding’s death?”

“Well, Ma